In the summer of 1972, an FT stringer in New Orleans sent us a worthy piece on Louisiana politics. It hung around the London office for about six weeks – it was not exactly riveting – but duly appeared in print under the headline “Senator Allen Ellender’s greatest test lies ahead”.

Indeed it did, but not at the polling booth. In the intervening period the good senator had expired, er, died. Nobody had noticed. He was not exactly a household name and the author of the article was writing a book on George Lewis, a jazz clarinettist, and had disappeared on the musical road. All we could really say was “oops”.